This job doesn’t come up often. In fact, we’ve never advertised it before. Due to an internal move, we are looking for someone really special to be the CHAS Director of Nursing and Family Support.

In Scotland, three children a week die from a life-shortening condition. CHAS provides unwavering care for children who may die young, and their whole families. Our team includes nurses, doctors, AHPs, chaplains, social workers and a wide range of family support specialists. They work across two children’s hospices, in community settings across the country, and in hospitals alongside NHS staff.

Reporting to the Chief Executive and working hand-in-glove with the Medical Director, you will deliver exceptional care for children and families. You will lead a team of 160 nurses and family support staff working across all parts of Scotland and in multiple settings.

Nursing plays a key role in our care, with nurse specialists involved in delivery, education, advanced practice and organisational leadership. You will inspire our nursing and family support teams to deliver exceptional care in hospice, home and hospital settings. You will work closely and collaboratively with NHS partners, to arrange seamless care.

You will envisage new ways of delivering care and lead teams through change as we implement our 2024-2028 Strategic Plan. You will inspire people behind our vision of delivering excellent care every day.

You will be an experienced nurse leader, confident at working in a multi-agency way. The majority of staff in our multi-disciplinary team are nurses, so you will need to have significant experience of leading nurses and healthcare professionals. You will be professionally registered but don’t need to be a children’s nurse.

We would be keen to hear from candidates with the following skills and experience:

• Detailed understanding of nursing and /or family support alongside significant senior nurse leadership experience
• Experienced in a strategic leadership role, working at or close to board level.
• A track record delivering a high quality of care and championing change in line with a strategic plan, supporting colleagues to think broadly about continuous improvement.
• Strong core management and leadership skills including communication, collaboration, strategic thinking, innovation, planning, mobilisation, reporting, commercial awareness, people and finance management.

We are open to hearing from people from a range of backgrounds. You may be working at or near board level in the NHS, health and social care partnership, or operating at nurse director level in a children’s or adult’s hospice.

The role can be based at any of CHAS’s main sites, with frequent travel to others.

The salary is expected to be c. £98,000, depending on experience, and will be attractive to nurses working at very senior roles in the NHS and other organisations. A higher salary may be provided to exceptional candidates who are already working beyond this level. Membership of the NHS Scotland or Local Government Pension Scheme is provided.

We expect this role to attract interest from Scotland, the UK and internationally so relocation expenses are available.

Interviews will be held on 26th April 2024.

This post is subject to a Disclosure Scotland PVG Check.

Geeza Break is a successful voluntary organisation whose main aim is to achieve improved health and well-being of individuals, families and their children by providing family support and flexible respite services to parents with children aged 0-16 years, predominantly within the East/North East in Glasgow. We are run by a voluntary Management Board.

The services we offer are intended to be short-term flexible support to families experiencing addiction, stress, crisis or isolation. These services set out to achieve a set of aims for both the family and children.

Due to the retirement of the current post holder, the opportunity has arisen for our voluntary Board of Directors to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who shares our ethos and will above all be committed to Geeza Break’s values and achieving our aims.

Our CEO supports and provides strategic and operational leadership to our staff management team and will have overall responsibility for managing and developing Geeza Break, in response to the wishes of our voluntary Board of Directors. We would welcome applications from candidates who believe they have the necessary skills and experience to take on this challenging but very rewarding role and who believe they can fit well into our existing culture.

A care or charity background is not necessary to be successful in our CEO’s role but the selected candidate must have excellent strategic and operational leadership skills gained in a comparable organisation.

The post holder will ensure that Geeza Break meets and maintains the highest standards of governance. Our CEO is also the dedicated Child Protection and Safeguarding Officer with ultimate responsibility for safeguarding.

The key competencies our CEO needs to have are:

Minimum of at least 5 years’ senior management experience is essential including working and having responsibility for developing, influencing, and managing organisational policy decisions within a comparable organisation.

Experience of working effectively with and reporting to a voluntary Board of Directors. You should also be able to demonstrate your ability to produce, interpret and present relevant statistical information.

Experience of working directly with the community and involvement in community projects, of a substantial permanent nature as well as of implementing organisational change programmes/projects and in making improvements to enhance performance.

Educated to SVQ level 4 in management or equivalent and be a skilled leader with financial, budgetary development and management experience, including dealing with HR.

An ability to work on your own initiative, problem solve and plan your time effectively to meet deadlines. You will need excellent written and oral communication skills and the ability to develop and maintain positive relationships at all levels of the organisation.

Experience in negotiating with funding and regulatory bodies and public speaking would be considered desirable.